1855 


Some interesting facts 
with reference to the work of the 
United Presbyterian Church 
in India 
under the care of 
The Board of Foreign Missions 
and 

The Women’s Board 


2 


THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
OF THE 
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF N. A. 
200 NortH FirrgEentH STREET, 


PHILADELPHIA, Pa. 


The Field 


The United Presbyterian Mission Field in India lies 
wholly within the Province of the Punjab and includes 
about one fifth of the population of the Province and 


one sixtieth of the population of the whole country. 


Near our border on the northwest is Afghanistan 
the only country in the world not yet open to mission- 
aries, and on the northeast the beautiful vale of Kashmir, 
adjoining which is the little known and unoccupied 


country of Thibet. 


During all the years of our missionary existence in 
India no other denomination has ever worked within the 
boundaries of our field with the exception of Roman 
Catholics and Seventh Day Adventists. It is exclusively 
United Presbyterian territory. 


oe Noes 
Beef foe 
Ke \_ PINOL CREE So 


re 


YAN by fies: 
° i 
- 


“ 


\ 
se 


L 
a 


FAR NORTH IN INDIA 


Statistics 


of the United Presbyterian Mission in India 


PAOLO Lele LC cde Oe oot otek lier scete 22,159 square miles 
Population*of eld...) <2. 4,768,000 
Mohammedans .... 3,242,240 68% 
Hindus and Sikhs.. 1,455,639 30% 
Christians and oth- 
ENS es Gene ard 70,121 2% 


The area of our field is about half that of New York 
or Pennsylvania. 


The population is exceeded by that of no state in 
the Union, except New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois 
(the States containing our three largest cities). 


Number of cities and villages in our field .... 9,374 


These, if placed side by side, would stretch all the 
way from New York to San Francisco—an unbroken line 


of villages. 


Missionaries on the field, January 1, 1921: 


OU OAINEG oy airs hae yr tee ene tate. enero te 31 
TEAC ia ens pa hide oa dvi Sotto east SRS 4 
Unmarried Women (including doctors) .... 49 
IndianeOrdaineds Ministersy.1....1...«1cceurae on 52 


There is an average parish of 57,445 people for 
every ordained minister in our field. 


In America the number of people to every Protestant 


minister is 594. 


In 1902 our Mission appealed for an increase of 180 
missionaries, and funds in proportion, as imperatively 
needed to properly man the field with a view to its evan- 


gelization within a generation. 


No. of Missionaries on the field, 1902 .......... ou 
eee 2 e LO 20 een eae 84 
INCREASE Mil Oey Gat acts ehs cinco ee oats were AT 
Still iackinesotthes 180, asked vf01 aa. ahi ae) 133 


The Indian Pastor 


Our Church has 52 or- 
dained Indian men, a 
Christian community of 
70,121, and is responsible 
for a population of 4,- 
768,000. 

Among these pastors one 
only is a college graduate. 
The accomplishments of 
our Punjabi pastors must 
be measured not only by 
the heights attained, but by 
the depths from which they 
have come. 

The Church in the Pun- 
jab does not lack her poets, 
scholars, translators, ora- 
tors and spiritual leaders. 
Greater than all, perhaps, in God’s sight, is the self- 
sacrificing “Self-Support” Pastor, who leaves behind the 
ease of an assured income as a Mission servant, and goes 
forth to the hardships and uncertain support of a village 
pastorate. This is the true missionary volunteer and 
hero of faith. Huis people are serfs, paid with a percent- 
age of the crop. When rain fails and crops are light, 
many a time the Pastor’s children go hungry to bed. 
Peculiar temptations assail him. A half truth would 
yield him a marriage fee. To oppose sin will cut off the 
support of a village. 

All our pastors are alive educationally. Amazing 
self-denial is shown in schooling sons and daughters. 
The story of many a girl studying in a village school 
might be read in sacrificial blood. 

The needs of the Church and the opportunities be- 
fore us demand at least the doubling of our force of 
ordained men. 

The Church in America can help— 

(1) By her prayers. 

(2) By the proper equipment of our preparatory 
schools. 


6 


The Session 


The United Presby- 
terian Church of the 
Punjab has 279 elders 
in 77 congregations, 
including 850 villages 
and a Christian popu- 
lation in organized 
congregations of 40,- 
594. 

Of these congrega- 
tions only 43 have 
settled pastors. But 
this scarcity of pas- 
tors is only one of the difficulties confronting the elder 
in the infant Church of India. 

The majority of the elders are illiterate. Few were 
even born of Christian parents. Under tremendous 
handicaps the elder fights his own personal battles in the 
devil’s own strongholds. His father was a seavenger, 
the family altar a mud idol,-his pastor a filthy fakir, and 
his shadow a curse to his neighbor. 

Having learned a few Bible stories and received bap- 
tism in a great mass movement, he suddenly finds great 
burdens resting upon him. He is one of the people and 
yet is held responsible for upholding the ideals developed 
in other lands after a thousand years of progress. 

But he is not empty handed. His is the power and 
wisdom of the twice-born. These rugged and earnest 
men have saved the Church from the Roman propa- 
gandist from without and heathen customs within. 

His task is only begun. 


Will You Help Him in This Fight? 


(1) By your prayers for these village sessions, in 
their fight for clean morals against vice embedded and. 
entrenched in age-long customs and lethargy. 

(2) By providing schools to light the dark night 
where he labors. Get his viewpoint by studying India 
and her needs. 


7 


THE SYNOD OF THE PUNJAB 


The Organized Church 


Out of the raw material of the mass movement, the 
task of the missionary is to weld an organized, self- 
sustaining and self-propagating Church. This is no mean 
task. These seventy thousand people—two thirds of 
them heathen in name and deed fifteen years ago—are 
ignorant, poverty-stricken, downtrodden, yet we are glad 
to report that more than half the total membership of our 
Punjab Church is already within the bounds of organized 
congregations. 

We have 77 congregations. Of these 31 are self- 
supporting. There are 43 Indian pastors. 

This is only a beginning, for the removal of ignorance 
is a work of years of patient effort. Workers are inade- 
quate to the need, and the condition of extreme poverty 
makes self-support at best a precarious proposition. The 
people eke out a hand-to-mouth existence on the verge 
of constant famine. It is, therefore, much to their credit 
that so many of them are able to support pastors even 
at an average salary of $6.00 per month. 

The total contributions to church work of all kinds 
during 1920 were $8,351. 

This does not make a large showing on paper, but 
does it not represent greater devotion and more self- 
sacrifice than do the gifts of the American Church out 
of her abundance? 


The Lay Preacher 


One of the prominent figures in the Indian Church is 
the lay preacher. The fact that 95 per cent. of the village 
Christians cannot read makes it necessary to find some 
way of acquainting the people with Bible truth. The 
bulk of this work is done by lay preachers, who spend all 
their time going about in circles of villages teaching, 
preaching and ministering to the Christian community 
in many ways. The average parish is fifteen villages, 
though five is more than one man can properly teach. 
One is reminded of the old-time Methodist circuit riders. 
These men, however, walk. As a class they have limited 
education and ability, but nevertheless are doing a great 
work. They are teaching the word and laying the 
foundation of the future Church out in the villages. For 
this difficult and important work they receive the hand- 
some salary of $5.00 per month. 


9 


AUDIENCE IN A CITY STREET 


Open Air Preaching 

There is not much difficulty in gathering a crowd to 
listen to a speaker in the streets of an Indian city. It 
is usual to have two or more conduct such a service of 
“bazaar preaching.” Generally a song is sung to give 
notice to the crowd to gather, then a definite clear 
presentation of the gospel is made by one or more 
speakers. Whether or not the audience is a constantly 
increasing one, a shifting one, or one that melts away, 
depends largely upon the ability of the speaker to state 
his case. Often while one is speaking others of the party 
circulate through the crowd, selling scriptures or scripture 
portions. By means of such meetings as these great 
numbers of people have heard the message and have first 
been interested in it. 


10 


The Growth of the Church 


7O12ZL 


, che Christian Com- 
munity has increased 
nearly six-fold in the 
last twenty years. The 
Church Membership has 
increased from 11,159 in 
1905 to 24,352 in 1910 to 
a ff fs. 30,689 in 1915, and to 
00 80H ID IIS 36,990 in 1920, 


GROWTH OF CHRISTIAN 
COMMUNITY 


The number of Organized Con- 
eregations has had a two-fold 
increase in the last decade, four- 
fold in the last two decades, 


thirty-two-fold in four decades. 


GROWTH OF ORGANIZED 
CONGREGATIONS 
Of these there was in 1900 but one Self-Supporting 
Congregation. In 1905. there were 12; in 1920, there 


were 3l. 


THE LITTLE MUD SCHOOLHOUSE 


Village Schools 


There are 206 village schools in our Mission in 
India, with a total of 8,895 pupils. Of these, 3,882 are 
Christian and 5,013 are non-Christian. Each year shows 
a growing interest in the cause of education. Our aim 
should be at least to give an opportunity to all our 
Christian children to attend school. There are 16,000 
Christian children between 5 and 15 years of age, three 
fourths of whom at present are not in school. How long 
will we have to wait until we can give this opportunity 


to the children who are the hope of the Indian Church? 


AVALON HIGH SCHOOL, PATHANKOT 


Schools for Girls 


No other part of the work in India means more for 
the upbuilding of the Kingdom and for the evangelization 
of the land than the girls’ boarding schools. In these 
schools are gathered little girls from villages and towns 
where their environment is hopelessly degrading. For at 
least a few months, and often for eight or ten years, 
these girls are put under the direct influence of American 
missionaries with their high ideals and their great passion 
to serve the little ones. Some of the girls, having passed 
through these schools, are now studying for their degrees 
in the Punjab University. 

There are in the villages many schools that admit 
girls; there are five boarding schools for girls, those at 
Sialkot, Pasrur, Sangla Hill and Sargodha taking them 
through primary or grammar grades, and the one at 
Pathankot through the high school course preparing 
them for college. . 
13 


GORDON COLLEGE, RAWALPINDI 


Higher Education 

The Mission has one College whose prosperity may 
be indicated by its growth in one decade from an attend- 
ance of 77 to an attendance of 184. | 

The Government of India pays annually to Gordon 
College a sum which is equivalent to the interest on 
$85,000 at 4 per cent., and is ready to increase this 
amount when additional Americans are added to the 
staff. The Government of India puts in dollar for dollar 
in buildings, furniture or library. Has any institution 
among our Church Colleges such a friend as this? 

Four hundred dollars will put a Christian student 
through four years of college work. The money required 
to put one student through one of our American Church 
Colleges will put four Christian students through Gordon 
College with B. A. degrees from the University of the 
Punjab. 

Re-read the above if you are looking for a living and 
growing institution in which to invest your money. 


14 


Growing School Attendance 


14 A7L 


The total attendance of 
boys and girls in all our mis- 
sion schools is shown by the 
height of the columns, in- 
creasing from 680 in 1870 to 
14,471 in 1920. 

The number of Christian 
pupils is shown by the black 
portions—a most encouraging 
increase during this time. 


15 


THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GUJRANWALA 


Training the Ministry 


The presence of a large and growing Indian Church, 
untaught and without capable leaders, places a tre- 
mendous responsibility on the Theological Seminary. It 
is well equipped, and a full theological course is taught, 
with practical work in nearby villages. Its usefulness is 
only limited by the slowness of the Indian Church to 
realize the need of native leadership and the failure of a 
sufficient number of individuals to hear the call of God to 
the gospel ministry. The number this year receiving 
training is 15. It is in this institution that there must 
be trained the men who will be responsible for the found- 
ing and building of a strong Indian Church. Pray with 
us that God may call out of the Indian Church a large 
number of capable, Spirit-filled men and thrust them 
into the gospel ministry. 


16 


GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL AT JHELUM 


The Ministry of Healing 


Two lady missionaries come to make their first visit 
to K———.,, a village in Jhelum District. They are met 
by Sher Khan, the headman. He asks, “Why have you 
come here?” ‘They say, “To visit the women.” He asks, 
“Who are you?” ‘We are Christian missionaries.” 
“Then you cannot come in. There is no God but God, 
and Mohammed is his prophet.” 

A year later the Doctor Miss Sahiba is on tour at 
this very place. Sher Khan’s wife is sick, dangerously 
ill. He begs the Doctor to come and see his wife. But 
she says, “You know I will tell her about Jesus if I 
come.” He says, ‘Never mind, tell her what you wish, 
only do what you can to make her well again.” 

What the one could not do, the other has easily 
accomplished. 

For years our Mission has been asking that especi- 
ally qualified men surgeons be sent out, and a thoroughly 
equipped hospital for men be opened in our field. At last 
our hopes are being realized. The new general hospital 
on our frontier is now being built at Taxila, the ancient 
capital of Alexander the Great in 325 B. C., and two 
doctors are on the field. 

ays 


PREACHING IN FRONT OF THE BOOKSHOP 


Selling God’s Word in the Punjab 


A missionary on a railway trip of 558 miles sold 32 
New Testaments. 


Another man sold 6 New Testaments on a railway 
trip of 14 miles. 


A Mohammedan convert sold 1,141 gospel portions 
in 5 months. 


A band of workers sold 2,077 gospel portions in a 
week. 


One man in one year sold 333 New Testaments. 


Total sales in our Mission during 1920—10,767. 


18 


MOSLEMS AT PRAYER 


The Mohammedan Problem 


India contains 66,000,000 Mohammedans—more 


than any other one country in the world,—more than all 
of Africa. 


Of these, 12,000,000 are in the Punjab; 3,242,240 
are in our field. 


The proportion for the whole of the Punjab is 51 
per cent, 


The proportion for our field is 68 per cent. 


19 


(H. R. FERGER) 


A HINDU HOLY MAN 


The Hindu Problem 


When the Aryan conquerors of India came through 
the passes of the Himalaya Mountains, they took with 
them a very simple form of religion from which there has 
been developed within India the complex system of 
Hinduism, with its millions of gods, its countless shrines, 
and its holy men everywhere present. No country will 
rise above the moral level of the ideals of its religion. 
The ideals of Hinduism as embodied in its priests and 
fakirs will never serve to lift India to the place where 
she may hope to fulfill the mission for which God has 
created her. Only the power of God in Christ can trans- 
form the ignorant priests of Hinduism into priests of the 
Most High God. 


20 


A GROUP OF CATECHUMENS FROM THE “UNTOUCHABLES” 


The Mass Movement 


The aborigines of India are said to belong to the 
Dravidian race. The origin of this race is not known. 
Before the Aryans came into the northern part of India, 
these Dravidian people had a rude civilization. The 
Aryan people, superior in strength and organizing ability, 
have through the centuries reduced the aborigines to a 
condition of abject servitude and hopeless degradation. 


Hinduism has nothing to offer these people other 
than the position of the outcaste to which it has reduced 
them. Islam has proved helpless to elevate those who 
have accepted the creed of the Prophet. The Christian 
missionary carried to those dwelling in this hopeless 
darkness the news of the Light of the World, and within 
the past three decades thousands of these people have 
accepted Christ, received instruction, and been baptized 
and received into the Church. ‘Thousands more are 
waiting to be taught. 


21 


eee 


5 
a 
are 
3 
a 


A Most Encouraging Growth 
A Tremendous Task Still Before Us 


The white perpendicular The black indicates’ the 
columns show the increase by great masses of unconverted 
decades in the Christian Com- in our field: 


munity of our India Mission: Mohammedans 3,242,240 
1855—1875 ..... 250 Hindus and 
1875—1885 ..... 3,200 Sikhs and 
1885—1895 ..... 6,000 Chuhras™2727 1455;639 
1 895=—190 5" soi: 8,712 
1905—1915 ..... 40,075 

Total~ Dec 3s yet 9156633287 Totaltar oe: 4,697,879 


The growth has been marvellous. Yet, at this rate, it 
will take generations to complete the work we have under- 
taken. 


22 


Names of Stations 


. Campbellpur 

. Gujranwala 

. Gurdaspur 

. Jhelum 

. Khangah Dogran 

. Lyallpur 

. Pasrur 

. Pathankot 

. Rawalpindi 

. Sangla Hill 

. Sargodha 

. Sialkot 

. Lafarwal 
Abbottabad 
Baddomali 
Bhalwal 
Chak Jhuma 
Chakwal 
Charwa 
Chiniot 
Chowinda 


COMICOe Cs On Cons INO 


— 
CAINS a) 


Dhariwal 
Dinanager 
Domeli 
Eminabad 
Fateh Jhang 
Gujar Khan 
Jaranwala 
Khushab 
Lalhan 
Madhopur 
Martinpur 
Murree 

Pind Dadan Khan 
Pindi Gheb 
Qila Soba Singh 
Sanghoi 
Shahpur 
Shakargarh 
Shekhupura 
Tallagang 


Note.—The stations numbered are already occupied; 


the unnumbered ones are proposed in the N. W. M. Survey. 


